The Asus ROG Strix RTX 2080 Super OC proved to be a very good card at 1440p with ultra settings, and it's capable of 4K UHD with high to ultra settings in most games. While the former ran well on any title, some games will need to drop settings from ultra for a smooth gaming experience.
The massive heatsink and triple-fan setup also proved effective and ran quietly in our tests, even with performance mode enabled and the fans always running. Using the quiet BIOS, while the fan RPM doesn’t change at load, during idle and light load operations the fans remain off yielding complete silence during menial tasks.
Asus also provides some extras that will appeal to a subset of users. Most motherboards typically have enough headers for fan control, but the card offers two additional fan headers plus an RGB header. The latter works with the Asus Aura Sync software, and if you're planning on using an Asus motherboard the ROG Strix graphics card makes for a sensible addition.
Is it worth the $789 price? That's up to the person holding the credit card. From a pure performance standpoint, the answer is a clear no — of the three RTX 2080 Super cards we've looked at, all three provide nearly the same performance. However, potential buyers need to consider the additional features. At the bottom of the pricing scale, the RTX 2080 Super FE goes for $700, and sometimes you can find an RTX 2080 Super for under $700 (e.g., we've seen this MSI Ventus XC OC for as little as $680). High-end cards like the EVGA RTX 2080 Super XC Hybrid we recently reviewed have better cooling, but a reference PCB and doesn’t have any additional fan/RGB headers.
The Asus ROG Strix 2080 Super OC has one of the best heatsinks and most robust power delivery setups of competing cards making the decision more difficult. It basically matched a liquid-cooled card in performance thanks to its higher factory clock speeds, and it looks good with an attractive backplate, well-implemented RGB lighting, and manages to keep thermals quietly under control. If you can stomach the high price and it will fit in your chassis, the Asus ROG Strix RTX 2080 Super OC is a viable RTX 2080 Super option. Otherwise, there are smaller and less expensive cards to choose from.
MORE: Best Graphics Cards
MORE: Desktop GPU Performance Hierarchy Table
MORE: All Graphics Content